21 research outputs found
INTRODUCING AN ACCESSIBLE TASK-BASED LEARNING (ATBL) APPROACH TO INCLUSIVE ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING (IELT) AT THE UNIVERSITY OF VERONA
No full textNow that the pandemic is slowly abating, it is time to focus on a learner-centred curriculum design for the future. The OECD report [1] on curriculum design for their 2030 project, underlines the fact that there may be “wide gaps” (p. 17) between the intentions behind curriculum design and the actual learner experience of such curricula. Over the past few years of Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT), in fact, the focus has not been on either content or learners, but rather on digital tools and the mechanics of implementing them in online learning [2]. The Covid pandemic and the adoption of ERT, an ad hoc solution to an unexpected problem, was conceived of as an emergency measure with no long-term guarantees of success. It has, however, confirmed that the process of integrating digital tools in education may only be effective on the plane of inclusion and equity if adopted in a principled manner, and most importantly, if a learner-centred approach is adopted [2]. One framework which seeks to cater for the needs of inclusion from the viewpoint of diverse students in diverse learning contexts, regardless of access to technology, is the Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and its three macro areas, i.e. the what (content) the how (formative aspects such as goal setting) and the why (motivation) of learning, it provides a transferable approach that still enables autonomy and flexibility in its implementation [3]. This presentation illustrates concrete ways in which these three central tenets of UDL are being implemented in the design of an experimental, accessible, task-based learning (ATBL) approach to Inclusive English Language Teaching (IELT) at the Verona University language centre. The course is part of an ongoing research project which aims to develop an effective model for this type of teaching. The learning design stems from the findings analysed qualitatively in a series of interviews conducted with key stakeholders in our study (teachers, tutors and students). The 40-hour course blends synchronous onsite/ online sessions with asynchronous activities provided for autonomous study on the e-learning platform. The participants are mixed-abilities, including special needs learners. An ATBL approach was created for this learning design because of its focus on meaningful tasks in realistic contexts that put the needs of the learners at the centre of the process. The interactive use of language in real-life tasks may also promote increased learner agency and engagement. This, in turn, may also impact performance gain, while leading to learner perceptions of autonomy, motivation, and a growing self-awareness that contribute both to more effective learning and competence. References: [1] A. Schleicher, Curriculum (Re)design. A Series of Thematic Reports from the OECD Education 2030 Project, 2020. Retrieved from https://www.oecd.org/education/2030-project/contact/brochure-thematic-reports-on-curriculum-redesign.pdf [2] J. Xiao, “Decoding new normal in education for the post-COVID-19 world: Beyond the digital solution,” Asian Journal of Distance Education, vol. 16, issue 1, pp. 141-155, 2021. Retrieved from http://asianjde.com/ojs/index.php/AsianJDE/article/view/558. [3] Center for Applied Language Technology, “The UDL Guidelines”, CAST, 2022. Retrieved from https://udlguidelines.cast.org/?utm_source=castsite&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=none&utm_content=footer. Keywords: Universal Design for Learning, Task-Based Learning, English Language Teaching, Accessibility, Inclusion, Emergency Remote Teaching
La versione globale dei Siti Web Aziendali. L'interazione tra codice, generi testuali e mezzo di trasmissione nella Comunicazione Interculturale d'Impresa mediata dalla rete
No full textAl giorno d'oggi, le aziende operanti nel contesto dell'economia globalizzata impiegano la lingua inglese e la rete Web come risorse strategiche allo scopo di rivolgersi ai loro stakeholders (portatori d'interesse) internazionali e per promuovere i loro prodotti. Da un lato infatti l'inglese è diventata sempre più la lingua prescelta per condurre commerci in ambito internazionale ed interculturale, mentre dall'altro lato la pubblicazione di una versione globale del sito web aziendale è ormai una pratica comune al fine di comunicare con il pubblico internazionale nella maniera più appropriata.
Partendo dal presupposto che il Web e l'inglese sono strumenti essenziali per la comunicazione interculturale d'impresa, la presente tesi di dottorato intende esaminare i modelli discorsivi ricorrenti così come le caratteristiche multimodali, ipertestuali e interattive che emergono dall'analisi di un corpus di siti web aziendali in versione globale in lingua inglese. I siti che sono stati selezionati appartengono ad organizzazioni operanti nel settore delle energie rinnovabili con sede in paesi dell'Unione Europea dove la lingua madre è diversa dall'inglese.
La presente tesi intende dunque inserirsi nell'area interdisciplinare di studi sulla Comunicazione Internazionale ed Interculturale d'Impresa, fornendo una risposta alle seguenti domande di ricerca:
- è possibile categorizzare un sito web aziendale in termini di genere testuale?
- in che modo le informazioni veicolate in forma testuale interagiscono con e sono influenzate da altre risorse semiotiche?
- quale processi di adattamento subisce la lingua inglese per rispondere ai bisogni della comunicazione interculturale d'Impresa mediata dal Web?
- in che modo le aziende si appropriano delle varie risorse rese disponibili dal Web per raggiungere i loro obiettivi allorché si rivolgono ad un pubblico internazionale?
Dati gli obbiettivi della presente tesi e considerata la complessità dei materiali di analisi, è stato opportuno individuare diversi seppur interdipendenti approcci metodologici. Per prima cosa, si è fatto riferimento alla Linguistica dei Corpora per generare wordlists (liste di frequenza delle parole utilizzate) e concordanze. Queste sono state poi esaminate per individuare le strutture lessico-grammaticali più ricorrenti ed efficacemente utilizzate. In secondo luogo, il quadro teorico tradizionale dell'Analisi dei Generi Testuali è stato integrato con l'approccio fornito dall'Analisi del Discorso Multimodale al fine di investigare le risorse multimodali, ipertestuali e interattive sfruttate nei siti web globali.
Dai risultati pare emergere che ogni sito web si differenzia dagli altri per quel che riguarda la gestione dell'informazione e l'utilizzo delle risorse digitali. Tale personalizzazione delle strategie promozionali fornisce un valore aggiunto alle attività comunicative di ciascuna azienda, e risulta quindi essere determinante non solo nel mantenere rapporti d'affari con gli stakeholders internazionali ma anche nel fronteggiare la competizione.
In conclusione, attualmente le aziende promuovono i loro prodotti e servizi, divulgano informazioni riguardanti i loro risultati e rendimenti, e mirano alla proiezione di un'immagine aziendale positiva facendo leva sulla convergenza di strumenti linguistici e digitali, contribuendo così ad un processo di ri-contestualizzazione dei tradizionali generi del discorso aziendale. Per quel che riguarda invece l'utilizzo dell'inglese, il fatto che esso sia adottato ed adattato dalle aziende al fine di condividere informazioni e condurre affari nell'attuale mondo globalizzato ha reso necessaria una problematizzazione nell’approccio a tale lingua, che è de facto il codice privilegiato della comunicazione interculturale d'impresa.In today's globalized economy, the use of English and the Web have become strategic assets for companies to address their stakeholders worldwide and promote their products. On the one hand, English is the privileged language to conduct business in an intercultural environment, on the other it is now common practice for companies to publish a global version of their corporate website to properly communicate with their stakeholders worldwide.
Banking on the assumption that the Web and English are today crucial for intercultural business communication, my PhD dissertation intends to investigate the discursive patterns along with the multimodal, hypertextual and interactive features that emerge from the analysis of a corpus of global corporate websites. The chosen websites belong to renewable energy companies based in European countries where English is not the native language.
In particular, my dissertation aims at contributing to the interdisciplinary field of International and Intercultural Business Communication, by providing an answer to the following research questions:
- is it possible to categorize a company website in generic terms?
- how does textual information cooperate with and is influenced by the other semiotic resources?
- how is English adapted for the purposes of web-mediated intercultural business communication?
- how do companies appropriate the resources available to fulfil the specific business purposes of their organizations when addressing their international audience?
Considering the objectives of my dissertation together with the complexity of the materials selected, different yet interdependent methods have been chosen. Corpus Linguistics has been used to provide wordlists and concordance lines, employed to lead the investigation of the most frequently used lexico-grammatical patterns. In addition, the theoretical framework of traditional Genre Analysis has been integrated with the approach of Multimodal Discourse Analysis, with a view to examining the multimodal, hypertextual and interactive resources exploited in the global websites.
The findings of the study seem to suggest that all websites differ from one another in the way information is managed and web resources are exploited. This personalization of promotional strategies places added value on the communicative activities of each company, and it proves to be instrumental to maintaining business relationships with a varied international audience as well as to making the company stand out from competition.
To conclude, nowadays companies promote their products and services, disseminate knowledge about their performances, and aim at building and projecting a positive corporate image by relying on the convergence of language and web resources, thus bringing about a remediation of the traditional genres of business discourse, and leading to a problematization of the status of English as the language for intercultural business communication which is adopted and adapted by members of the business domain in order to share information and conduct trade in today's globalized world
Creating Brand Personality and Engaging Users in Instagram for Marketing Purposes : A Multimodal Discourse Analysis
No full textThis paper presents the findings of a pilot study regarding the ways in which the communicative potential of Instagram can be harnessed for marketing purposes. In particular, by adopting a multi-method approach rooted in Multimodal Discourse Analysis (Iedema 2003; Jewitt 2016), the study explores how an Italian fashion start-up company, D1 Milano, expresses its brand personality (Aaker 1997; Crawford Camiciottoli 2018) and engages its followers. The research objective is pursued by investigating a corpus of 1,137 posts published between 15 August 2015 and 30 September 2019. These are examined focusing on three areas. The most frequent linguistic patterns are analysed using Sketch Engine in order to determine how brand personality is verbalised. The metadata are explored in the light of Zappavigna’s (2015) metafunctional framework, according to which hashtags can fulfil an experiential, a textual, and an interpersonal function. As regards visual representation, the study concentrates on the creation of interpersonal meaning between the image producer, the represented participant, and the viewer through choices in subjectification (Zappavigna 2016). The results indicate that the personality of the brand combines traits belonging to the dimensions of excitement and sophistication, which are conveyed both linguistically and visually. Moreover, since the company frequently reposts pictures taken by its customers/followers, the audience is expected to identify with the brand, especially in the case of those images where the presence of the photographer can be inferred by the inclusion of his/her body parts (almost 25% of the entire corpus). Finally, hashtags mainly serve an experiential and an interpersonal function: one the one hand, they evoke D1 Milano’s personality by foregrounding the features of the brand, while also thematising the followers’ attitude, desires, and ambitions; on the other, they promote engagement by inviting users’ metacomments
Teaching oral skills in Higher Education (HE) language learning
No full textThe aim of this study was to test two UDL-informed models to inclusive, accessible language teaching in a Business English course at a B1+ level. We adopted a task-based learning (TBL) approach in the experimental group and a presentation, practice, production (PPP) approach in the control group. Our hypothesis was that the former approach would lead to a more significant performance gain in oral skills than the latter. The hypothesis was tested by conducting oral pre- and post-tests prior to and following instruction, the scores of which were analysed quantitatively. These results were triangulated by a qualitative analysis of the answers learners gave to open questions on exit tickets throughout the course. The quantitative findings showed significant performance gain in both groups after the treatment, but the difference between the two was not marked. However, the qualitative analysis revealed variation in the participants’ perceptions of their learning process, which may have been influenced by the approach applied. A future teaching model may, therefore, include both PPP and TBL elements, complemented by formative assessment strategies
Students’ Voices from the Pandemic. The Use of Modal and Semi-Modal Verbs for Expressing Subjectivity in a Local Academic Learner Corpus
No full textThis essay presents the results of a small-scale study on learner output obtained through an asynchronous writing activity completed in a Moodle forum during an English course targeting students of Primary Teacher Education at the University of Modena e Reggio Emilia (Italy) in spring 2020. The activity encouraged learners’ expression about topics relevant to their disciplinary and professional domain, thus enhancing their engagement in the learning process. The analysis focuses on the use of modal and semi-modal verbs, and it aims at contributing to research into modality in learners’ academic writing. Indeed, the insights obtained by examining material created by learners during the pandemic can help develop resources and strategies to be incorporated in a more conscious, organic, and learner-centred manner into the design of future courses. The corpus (27,430 tokens) was investigated using Sketch Engine, and the results show the students’ preference for modals and semi-modals expressing obligation. This may be determined by the topic and by the students’ background, as they integrate their personal perspective as insiders into their contributions, hence demonstrating their strong commitment towards the profession for which they are training
DIDATTICA DIGITALE PER LE LINGUE STRANIERE: SFIDE E OPPORTUNITÀ: A cura di Peggy Katelhön
No full textContributi di Peggy Katelhön, Elena Landone, Andrea Nava, Laila Paracchini, Luciana Pedrazzini, Martin Ruskov, Giuseppe Sergio, Emanuela Tenca
THE ITALY ELT ARCHIVE: IMPLICATIONS FOR SECOND LANGUAGE AWARENESS RESEARCH AND TEACHER EDUCATION
No full textThe pivotal role of archives and special collections in education, particularly in the humanities, has been researched for many years. However, the use of digital archives for second language teacher education appears to have been overlooked. Moreover, while research into the history of second language teaching is an expanding field in Europe, the history of English Language Teaching (ELT) in Italy is still undeveloped. To fill these gaps, a project is underway at the University of Milan to create an online, open-access archive of ELT materials published in the twentieth century targeting Italian learners of English, the Italy ELT Archive (IELTA). The purpose is to promote research and provide in-service and pre-service teachers with tools to understand the principles underpinning ELT materials and develop their awareness of second language teaching methods. In thefirst part of this article, we describe how IELTA was designed and developed to fulfil both research and education purposes. In the second part, we provide examples of how IELTA can be used to research language variation and language attitudes to enhance teachers’ awareness of these linguistic phenomena. One critical issue in teacher education is bridging the gap between theoretical knowledge of second language teaching methods and their practical implementation. In the last part, we provide examples of how IELTA was used to enhance student teachers’ awareness of teaching methods through the analysis and evaluation of ELT materials.
L’archivio italiano ELT: implicazioni per la ricerca sulla consapevolezza della seconda lingua e la formazione degli insegnanti
Il ruolo centrale degli archivi e delle collezioni speciali nell’educazione, in particolare nelle scienze umane, è stato studiato per molti anni. Tuttavia, l’uso degli archivi digitali per la formazione degli insegnanti di seconda lingua sembra essere stato trascurato. Inoltre, mentre la ricerca sulla storia dell’insegnamento delle seconde lingue è un campo in espansione in Europa, la storia dell’insegnamento della lingua inglese (ELT) in Italia è ancora poco sviluppata. Per colmare queste lacune, presso l’Università degli Studi di Milano è in corso un progetto per la creazione di un archivio online, ad accesso libero, di materiali ELT pubblicati nel XX secolo e destinati agli studenti italiani di inglese, l’Italy ELT Archive (IELTA). Lo scopo è quello di promuovere la ricerca e di fornire agli insegnanti in servizio e pre-servizio gli strumenti per comprendere i principi alla base dei materiali ELT e sviluppare la loro consapevolezza dei metodi di insegnamento della seconda lingua. Nella prima parte di questo articolo, descriviamo come IELTA è stato progettato e sviluppato per soddisfare sia gli scopi di ricerca che quelli educativi. Nella seconda parte, forniamo esempi di come IELTA possa essere utilizzato per la ricerca sulle variazioni linguistiche e sugli atteggiamenti linguistici, al fine di migliorare la consapevolezza degli insegnanti su questi fenomeni linguistici. Una questione critica nella formazione degli insegnanti è quella di colmare il divario tra la conoscenza teorica dei metodi di insegnamento delle seconde lingue e la loro applicazione pratica. Nell’ultima parte, forniamo esempi di come l’IELTA sia stato utilizzato per migliorare la consapevolezza degli studenti insegnanti sui metodi di insegnamento attraverso l’analisi e la valutazione dei materiali ELT
Carlo Tenca, la contessa Maffei, il rinnovamento della letteratura
No full textThe essay follows Carlo Tenca’s intellectual and artistic journey in the light of his relationship with the Countess Maffei and the cultural direction of his important literary salon. Based on his conspicuous epistolary, on the theoretical writings and on various narrative works of the Milanese author, the essay shows how the bond with Clarina, from the second half of the Forties to the unification of Italy, favored his departure from Mazzinian radicalism and the adhesion to the Cavourian and Liberal moderate program expressed by the magazine "Il Crepuscolo"; this political evolution coincided with an artistic turning point for Tenca, who, while not denying Manzoni's authority, sought a more popular literature and, above all, the overcoming of the "historical" tale in a "civil" and "social" direction, tied to contemporary reality
Remediating Corporate Communication Through the Web: The Case of “About US” Sections In Companies’ Global Websites
No full textMechanisms through which Sos-1 coordinates the activation of Ras and Rac
No full textSignaling from receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs)* requires the sequential activation of the small GTPases Ras and Rac. Son of sevenless (Sos-1), a bifunctional guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF), activates Ras in vivo and displays Rac-GEF activity in vitro, when engaged in a tricomplex with Eps8 and E3b1-Abi-1, a RTK substrate and an adaptor protein, respectively. A mechanistic understanding of how Sos-1 coordinates Ras and Rac activity is, however, still missing. Here, we demonstrate that (a) Sos-1, E3b1, and Eps8 assemble into a tricomplex in vivo under physiological conditions; (b) Grb2 and E3b1 bind through their SH3 domains to the same binding site on Sos-1, thus determining the formation of either a Sos-1-Grb2 (S/G) or a Sos-1-E3b1-Eps8 (S/E/E8) complex, endowed with Ras- and Rac-specific GEF activities, respectively; (c) the Sos-1-Grb2 complex is disrupted upon RTKs activation, whereas the S/E/E8 complex is not; and (d) in keeping with the previous result, the activation of Ras by growth factors is short-lived, whereas the activation of Rac is sustained. Thus, the involvement of Sos-1 at two distinct and differentially regulated steps of the signaling cascade allows for coordinated activation of Ras and Rac and different duration of their signaling within the cell
